Fast-food chain McDonald’s Corp. will cut back on opening new restaurants in several countries this year as the world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue struggles with competition and rising commodity costs.

But returns to shareholders will remain on target. “We remain on track to deliver against our three-year target to return $18 billion to $20 billion to shareholders between 2014 and 2016,” said company finance chief Pete Bensen.

International Business Machines Corp.’s Martin Schroeter, who was promoted to chief financial officer about a year ago, told CFO Journal’s Maxwell Murphy that debt has a valuable place on his company’s balance sheet, and pointed to both acquisitions and capex to explain its recent smaller share repurchase.

For chief financial officers, one of the hardest places to calculate return on investment is marketing and advertising.

“We want information that shows us which type of marketing could be more effective,” said Bob Shearer, chief financial officer of VF Corp., which sells clothing and footwear brands including Vans, Lee, Timberland and The North Face.

If 2013 was the year of dividends and buybacks, 2014 could be the year of capital spending. After a year of anemic expenditures on new factories and equipment, more companies say they are ready to plow money back into their businesses. The change in attitude has been inspired largely by the strengthening U.S. economy as well as pressure from long-term investors.

Google Inc. may have reported lower-than-expected second-quarter revenue on Thursday but the company said its capital expenditures doubled.

The Internet search giant said its capital spending rose to $1.6 billion in the quarter, up from $774 million in the second quarter of last year. Capital expenditures were also a third higher than in the first quarter.